Life expectancy will decline without action: experts

The Sydney Morning Herald reports on a possible reverse in mortality improvements: Life expectancy could begin to decline for the first time in more than a century if the world does not tackle an epidemic of chronic diseases, experts have warned. An international summit in Sydney will be told today that four preventable conditions - heart disease, diabetes, chronic lung disease and some cancers - are responsible for nearly 60 per cent of the world's deaths.

Ruth Colagiuri, an associate professor of public health at the University of Sydney, said 4 million working days were lost each year in Australia due to obesity. "The way we live now is making us sick. It's making our planet sick, and it's not sustainable," she said.

The summit, organised by the Oxford Health Alliance, a coalition of health and business groups including researchers from the University of Oxford, will finalise recommendations for urgent action to be given to the Federal Government's 2020 summit in April.

Professor Colagiuri said fresh food needed to become more affordable and the sugar, fat and salt content of food reduced. Professor Anthony Capon, of the University of Sydney, said cities need to be redesigned as "human habitats" if the dual crises of chronic disease and global warming were to be solved. "We need to build the physical activity back into our lives."

Job, services, schools and shops needed to be built close to where people live and public transport needed to be improved. A US law professor, Lawrence Gostin, of Georgetown University, will tell the summit governments are too focused on terrorism at the expense of chronic diseases. "There's a political paralysis in dealing with the issue. Yet the human costs are frightening when we consider that obesity could shorten the average lifespan of an entire generation," he said.

Life expectancy world map, updated by "Pallando," Wikimedia Commons